How do School Counsellors Perceive Death Education? A Qualitative Study

School counsellors' perceptions of death education have not yet been studied in Death Pedagogy, although death is a phenomenon that is inherent in life itself and, in circumstances such as the current pandemic and post-pandemic, can be ubiquitous in everyday experience, both individual and collective. Thus the objective of this study was to ascertain school counsellors' perceptions of death education. The study design was qualitative and descriptive. Six counsellors working in Spanish state schools at early childhood, primary, secondary and sixth-form levels participated. A content analysis of topics and semantics was performed using the Jaccard index. Some notable views expressed by participants were: (1) death was associated with violence, prurience and dehumanization in the media, social media and some videogames, and hence the current social image of the topic was not suited to educational purposes; (2) death education was associated mainly with tutorial intervention in counselling for bereaved students, although its educational value in curriculum subjects, cross-curricular topics and tutorial action plans was also acknowledged; (3) death education was necessary, though problematic and controversial; (4) a shift of approach was needed, moving from health and psychological intervention towards education and pedagogy; (5) the leading role in counselling and guidance should be taken by tutors; (6) schools should design and implement not only death education but also bereavement counselling plans, adaptable to the student, as a part of the school educational project. The main conclusion was that in order to take advantage of the potential of Death Pedagogy in both organisational and didactic terms, specific training was required for school counsellors, teachers and parents.